


Supernatural Comics Reviews

by yourlibrarian



Series: Reviews [28]
Category: Supernatural (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Nonfiction, Reviews
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:55:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29928240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlibrarian/pseuds/yourlibrarian
Summary: Takes on the comic during their initial release, starting May 2, 2007.
Series: Reviews [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/465847
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Supernatural Comics Reviews

Interesting to see in Issue 1 that the family started with a station wagon. All part of that normality that was left behind. I was intrigued that John suggests something's in Sam. I hadn't considered that Sam had been infected with something at that moment rather than that his abilities had been with him since birth. And the message that (whoever) was coming for the children could mean that it was coming for more children like Sam or that it would be returning for the children in the future once they were grown. (Or, it could mean none of the above, just lead to John's first case).

I can see from John's immediate experiences after the fire why Dean would have the contempt for law enforcement he showed in the pilot. I liked the fact that Missouri comes to John to help him out. Up until now it's not clear if John was willing to believe anything to explain what he'd seen and went looking for answers, but no. In this way after exhausting the usual avenues, it's she who comes to him. Which makes Sam's line to Dean about how there might have been more booze and less demon hunting in their past more chilling. Because given where Missouri finds him, hustling, drinking and apparently trying to numb himself (or maybe even get himself killed), it might very well have gone that way without her help.

I expected to see Missouri in this issue but we got more of her than I hoped, and it looks like she did more than just give John some leads, she really started him out on his path. Very curious about the artifact she gave him too. Given the way the issue ended I can see why John would forever after keep the boys close.

As for the second story, how interesting that Dean gives Sam the same lie that was given to Max by his parents (or at least at large to others given what the neighbor said). I guess this would explain why Sam still knew so little about his mother's death in "Home," though he certainly learns more at some point about her actual death. I was wondering how old Dean and Sam were supposed to be here given that Dean's driving. I daresay John probably taught him as soon as he was tall enough to see and reach properly though.

I liked the way it ended as well, with Sam having no idea why his brother was so angry and Dean being worried about his father, upset about his mother and feeling the pressure of taking care of Sam all at once. It does surprise me in a way that Sam doesn't know how to swim yet, but maybe since I come from Florida where there's so much activism about teaching infants to swim as soon as possible I'd worry more about having pools around and only Dean to (usually) look after Sam. All in all a good story for such a short one.

The Origins artworks was very unimpressive. The only characters we really have to identify are John and Missouri since Sam and Dean are obvious from their ages. The artwork for SPN was ok, but nowhere near as rich. I found it interesting that the colors seem as muted in the comic as they are in the series. In both cases though, I'm really eager to see more. A good start for SPN.

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Supernatural Origins #2, seeing the cover in person did nothing to lessen the weirdly creepy Dean and completely non-resembly John.

My first thoughts about the opening panel were that the first issue may have followed the darker textures of the show, but one thing the show also has (which I love) are the big open panoramic scenes. I love those shots, and given how often I see them in icons I don't think I'm alone. On the show this opening panel would have given that fabulous sense of place. Given the artwork style it just looks flat and simplistic. There's also not that much attention to detail. In the Eureka motel room, Sam looks pretty big and Dean even bigger for a 4 year old. He looks more like 8. Also, John shouldn't even be 30 yet, right? He looks pretty old in this series.

So Mary lost her parents early on? I'm gathering from his age, Jacob is not Mary's brother, so I'm assuming he's her uncle, and therefore Sam and Dean's grand-uncle. I'll be curious if within this series we get to find out more about John's family. Or about how Mary's parents died. Of course, given the scene he would have had to live nearby and been called right away. Which maybe if he and Mary were close might have been the case. 

So the Metallicar is introduced as Jacob's car? I'd noted in other reviews how it was pointed out that John was sitting on the car in the pilot, but I figured, it was simply a second car and the station wagon was Mary's. Apparently not. Guess this is a detail they overlooked. It also seemed unnecessary to me in how John acquired the car. While I thought it interesting that Jacob is one of the first of many people John's gotten killed as part of his mission, I found the whole notion of the Metallicar's origins not unlike that of how Spike acquired his duster in Buffy. Only, I rather thought the Spike explanation was more fitting. This just seemed pointless. You'd think John could have used the money from the sale of the station wagon and could have disposed of Jacob's body in other ways.

Overall a rather disappointing month in comics :(

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In Issue 3, I was definitely grabbed by the topic on the first page, Dean abandoning Sam and John, fed up with their mobile lifestyle and believing that by going Sam would have to become the focus of John's attention. Ouch. It seems to me this could have been an interesting, ongoing storyline. Instead it's patly resolved by Dean finding John's journal (a different journal, I would assume than his hunting journal which appeared to be a hunting resource rather than a personal diary).

Unfortunately the continuity issues seem to continue. On page 2 John is told that a demon killed Mary, yet in S1 when he tells Sam the news, Sam seems surprised. That never made sense to me, as I figured surely they had known this for some time. Sam and Dean encounter demon possession in episode 3 after all. Of course Sam seems surprised by some of the information of Mary's death in "Home" so perhaps it's only Sam who didn't know about it. It could be that John and Dean would avoid recounting the details to him.

Nice to see Ellen introduced and it's reasonable that John met her and visited the Roadhouse early on, thus explaining Dean and Sam's failure to remember her. Given what Dean ended up seeing, maybe he also blotted it all out.

I can't say I really related to John's initial conflict about his hunt, and that he wasn't a killer. The heeler didn't seem human and John had been in the military after all. When the story added in the twist that the healer was now a shapeshifter, John's hesitation seems much more understandable, since he had to take the hunter's word alone for what had happened. But to me that made the transition worse, to think that John would hesitate before with less reason and then hesitate so little when things became so much more ambiguous. What's worse is there would have been no confirmation he did the right thing, since in Skin the shapeshifter retained Dean's form once dead. (It also raised the problems I had with Skin in that Sam seemed to realize at once, for no reason I could identify, that Dean had been replaced. At least the hunter had more to go on about what had happened.)

What was good about that sequence was to introduce the level of paranoia John must have begun living with (and passed on to his sons) about what was out there. Little wonder Dean has such contempt for law-enforcement.

On the other hand, it seemed so pat that Dean would rush out just as John shot not-Ichi. And needlessly traumatic given that shortly afterwards John begins his pattern of leaving them behind as he goes off to hunt. It's also kind of sad to see the first lie, that John promises there will be a day when he doesn't have to leave. I'm fairly sure that even if he had lived to see the demon killed, John would never have stopped hunting. And by that point, of course, his sons didn't need him to.

Artwork wise, still not thrilled. For example on page 3 both the hunter and John look identical when sitting in the car talking. Dean still looks much too big for the 4 year-old he was. I did, however, like the scene where the hunter and John talk at the end. That would have been a beautiful scene on film.

Overall, still a "meh" for story and artwork, and ambivalent about the additional character details being revealed. On the plus side, there are opportunities for fans to creare [incredibly funny commentary](http://caffienekitty.livejournal.com/23223.html) on the SPN Origins Comics. Far more entertaining than the comics. Unfortunately.

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Interesting start to Issue 4. Though for a moment I was intrigued that we might be getting back story on Mary and the YED, I guessed how it would turn out but I still liked the transition. The Doc Benton explanation sounded rather like the Wendigo to me, but whatever. In general I find the MotW the least interesting thing about SPN anyway. I did think the way John quickly dispatched him started to move him closer to his likely future hunting patterns. Though I don't understand why this mentor of his still doesn't have a name.

Interesting to hear the origins of Dean and Pastor Jim, though the whole faith in God averts insanity thing? Hmm. Jim's backstory is rather different from that of most hunters so it does better explain why he's not mobile, since he doesn't actually seem to hunt. It also makes me wonder if John might return to him frequently and this is one of the things that makes it hard for him to let go of Mary. I mean, does Pastor Jim just sit around waiting to slice his arm open for anyone who wants to visit with a deceased loved one? Other than making John feel better what was the purpose of that?

The whole story with the hellhound is also making no sense to me and the content of this issue seemed pretty light. I have to wonder what sort of conclusion this series will come to.

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Got the final issue of Supernatural: Origins. Great cover, glad they saved the best for last. 

The beginning to the 6th issue sounded for all the world like it was taken directly from the criticisms of various and sundry fans who were put off by the sloppy storytelling and (I would call it character assassination of John if only we knew more about him) foolish John depiction. However it doesn't go anywhere, we spend the whole issue with John jumping from one hallucination to the next (though I did quite like the panel of him burning on the ceiling rather than Mary). I also had to laugh at the "truthiness" lecture the Hunter guy gave John. Might as well have been Stephen Colbert telling him to trust his gut, not books. His speech was just as empty too. No answers, just getting John on the road to hunting. Isn't that what we already knew in Issue 2? The big message seems to be "Your safe life was an illusion, there's nothing left for you now but your sons."

I find it unfathomable how, with so much potential stuff to discuss and explore, there is virtually nothing provided in the 6 issues about John, Dean, Sam or the world they operate in. This last issue contained nothing about anything, literally, it was like they were trying to burn off the last issue.

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SPN Rising Son, issue #1.

Well, for starters the art was better and the story was better. In all honesty I had no intention of reading any more SPN comics after the steadily mounting mess that was SPN Origins (argh, so much potential wasted!) As it happens though I didn't realize my comics subscription was still open so now I have issue #1 and issue #2 on the way. So...

I liked the use of the journal type font for the opener, and different sections therein. It figures that we get a succubus story in the comics, *sigh* Should I wonder how John knew the two kids killed by The Beast were playing doctor? I think it's just as well he got laid off from hauling boxes -- I don't imagine that would have done his arm any good. I guess we know why Sam doesn't have particularly good Christmas memories since this is what went on the year before we saw them in the Christmas episode.

On the one hand Dean and Sam's argument about the cheese sandwich amused me. On the other, no wonder poor Dean eats everything in sight when he has the chance. It makes me rethink the kitchen scene in WIaWSNB, that Dean's ideal household was full of good food.

Ok, I'm assuming then that they were in Wisconsin for over 6 months, because otherwise how could the letter to Eddie have been returned to them at the motel? I was excited to see the issue of Mary's relatives brought up in the plot, and it makes sense then that John would have gone to check out the disappearance (especially since they had to clear out anyway).

Poor Sam, he really doesn't come off well here, does he? And what's with the "we got up in the middle of the night bit" about? They were awake watching a movie when John was woken at the door. At least Sam and Dean look appropriately distant in age from one another and like actual 8 and 12 year olds. Except you'd think at 12 Dean would already be enjoying the scenery.

Speaking of which, I get why in John's mind no woman might compare to Mary (who has the benefit of being dead and idealized) and so she might always be in his mind in any sexual encounter, but why would he be apologizing to her? For pete's sake, she's been dead for 7 years by then, it's a little much to suggest John's been a monk all that time.

He is apparently Superman however. Thanks to a conveniently placed, very sharp sword he (nearly) kills about 10 succubi. Man, those other guys must be drained pretty fast to be so bad at getting away. Chalk another one up to major Winchester trauma though, killing "Mary" over and over again.

And apparently as a parting shot, we should know humanity is about to be saved by Casey Blue's boobs of doom.

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Finally a few observations about SPN Rising Son #2. Let's just say that we can see that it's not just the live action S3 which seems to have veered into misogyny. In our first issue we had John mass slaughtering succubi who had taken over a town and imprisoned men with domesticity and who then all morphed into Mary's face in the big confrontation. In issue 2 we have Sam's elementary school teacher turning out to be a crossroads demon, attempting to take Sam to another dimension utilizing the crossroads which are apparently transdimensional portal spots, and creating a Transformer. And oddly it was the Transformer bit that really made me roll my eyes. In the meantime John tries to stop her by beating her scantily clad self with a chain and calling her a bitch. Which is actually the second time he said that, as the first was when he stabbed a possessed old woman. So yeah, he's using it against demons but they're all women in both issues. Just in case we're wondering where Dean might have gotten it from. 

And just to add to the mess, in this issue John decides to try settling down, to give the boys some normality. Dean resents Sam getting along well with others in school, and recognizes Sam's doting teacher for being the demon she is, although John's sleeping with her and apparently notices nothing. So if a woman is nice to you, you shouldn't trust her. It doesn't do much to counter the whole "the womyns is evil" theme.

On a more positive note I'm starting to understand in this issue where Dean's idea of John doting on Sam comes from. I have to say I feel rather sorry for him in that up until this time everything he's experienced has put him on the outside of everyone around him. Whereas when John decides to do an about-face and try for normal he expects Dean to just fall in line. No doubt from Dean's POV the whole effort is all about John trying to give Sam something he wants (which doesn't work). Except that just like in Skin, Dean's trying to tell Sam not to bother with friends because their family is not like other ones. And I'm guessing this incident is setting up Dean for his attitude with Ruby, as it's another demon cozying up to Sam's ego, extolling his specialness, and trying to lead him down another path.

What I thought was particularly interesting though is how this is setting up Dean as being the moral arbiter, not only of Sam, but John (who seems an awful lot like Sam, frankly, only not as bright). It's kind of sad really, since the one thing everyone from his critics to his friends seemed to agree on regarding John was that he was a good hunter. You wouldn't know it by the comics.


End file.
